Trip the Light Fantastic: Extended Concert Programme | Thu 30 Nov

About Paraorchestra

Paraorchestra create large scale dynamic music experiences, blending artforms and technology to create innovative new ways of experiencing orchestral music.

Created in collaboration with their ensembles of professional disabled and non-disabled musicians, and artists across artforms and genres, Paraorchestra’s work appeals to the widest audience, and is radically shifting outdated perceptions of orchestral music and of disability.

Under the Artistic Direction of award-winning conductor, Charles Hazlewood, Paraorchestra seeks to disrupt and reinvent the orchestral norm. Whether marching a 50—piece karaoke pop ensemble through suburban streets, headlining a main stage at Glastonbury Festival with Philip Glass’ Heroes symphony, or reworking pioneering electronic music in a nightclub; Paraorchestra is sharing relevant and dynamic orchestral music with audiences that otherwise may not have engaged with an orchestra. Their partnerships with broadcasters Sky Arts and Real World Records have taken their work directly into the homes of millions across the globe.

Of their full playing strength nearly 40 Paraorchestra musicians identify as disabled, D/deaf, or neurodivergent. They are the only orchestra in the world pro-actively increasing their representation of professional disabled players, removing the barriers that prevent disabled players from performing at their very best.

In Autumn 2023 Paraorchestra launched an extensive Artist Development programme, created in recognition of a lack of professional support and development opportunities for musicians identifying as disabled. Huge expansion of their existing programme of work – including paid residencies and workshops – will provide meaningful opportunities for world-class music making and give those that identify as disabled an advantage for their career development.

www.paraorchestra.com

Artist Biographies

Charles Hazlewood, Artistic Director
Paraorchestra

Award-winning conductor (EBU Conducting Competition 1995, 1st Prize) Charles Hazlewood has worked with many of the world’s greatest orchestras including Royal Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; The Philharmonia; Swedish Radio Symphony; Danish Radio Symphony. A visionary with a mission to bring the joy of orchestral music to a 21st Century audience, his collaborations with artists span genres and generations and include Nigel Kennedy, Goldie, Squarepusher, and Wyclef Jean. He has authored, presented, and conducted in multiple landmark and award-winning films for BBC and Sky Arts; won three Sony Radio Academy Awards for his shows on BBC Radio 2 and 3; and composed scores for multiple critically-acclaimed theatre productions. He was a Castaway on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in 2020; has three TED talks to his name; is Sky Arts’ Ambassador for Music; and in 2023 was honoured by leading charity Making Music with the Sir Charles Groves prize for his “outstanding contribution to British music”

www.charleshazlewood.com

Surgeons Girl

Surgeons Girl is a composer working with Analogue hardware, vocals, piano and generative visuals with influences which lie in both the ambient and techno genres, weaving emotive and enveloping sounds from her instruments with a remarkable introspective feel and sonic maturity, drawing on influences from the likes of Laurel Halo, Caterina Barbieri, and Dasha Rush. Her A Violet Sleep EP marked a stunning, dream-like debut for the Bristol based artist on the Bristol label, Livity Sound. She followed this up with The Empress Moss on London label Inside Out Records and then Sever earlier this year on Barcelona label, Lapsus Records.

Oliver Vibrans

Oliver Vibrans is an Ivor Novello award winning Composer, writing music for the concert hall, theatre, film, art installations and radio. His most recent work includes Duet for One at The Orange Tree, Richmond; The Solid Life of Sugar Water, winner of best production at the Offies 2022; Hatchet Job for Royal Northern College of Music; The Music and Meditation Podcast for BBC Concert Orchestra; and Monomyth for the Halle. He has also composed music for two episodes of Charles Hazlewood’s documentary Reinventing the Orchestra for Sky Arts with Paraorchestra; Treading Water for the BBC Philharmonic; and More Up, a piece for Chamber orchestra and electronics for The Halle, BBC Philharmonic and The Able Orchestra. Oliver has won an Ivor Novello award and been nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society award.

Asteryth Sloane

Asteryth Sloane (formally known as Xia-Leon Sloane) is a composer and trainee psychotherapist. Graduating from the Royal Northern College of Music in 2022, their academic work explored Ethical Listening – a way of engaging with the rights of sounds and sound sources that opens the way for closer, more equal sonic relationships. Asteryth’s music responds to the beauty and fragility of the living Earth and embodies aspects of queer and autistic experience. This year they have a residency with Paraorchestra, during which they are creating an album exploring music’s place in a therapeutic healing process.

Bristol Beacon wish to thank

With heartfelt thanks to all Bristol Beacon staff and trustees, and all the project staff who have built this transformative space as well as our supporters and partners.

Bristol Beacon Trustees

Marti Burgess
Simon Chapman (Chair)
Cllr Craig Cheney (Bristol City Council)
Jonathan Dimbleby
Katharine Finn
Craig Gentle
Tanya Lacey
Sandra Meadows MBE, FRSA
Sonia Mills
Louise Mitchell CBE
Andrew Nisbet
Tim Westwell

Our transformation has been made possible thanks to the visionary support of: Bristol City Council, Arts Council England, HM Government, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, WECA, Bristol Water, Burges Salmon, Foyle Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation, Jack and Monica Britton Trust, St James Place, John James Bristol Foundation, Nisbet Trust, Quartet Community Foundation and The Wolfson Foundation.

Over 9,000 individuals have made one-off donations to the transformation project, with contributions ranging from £5 a month as a seat namer up to a £1 million gift.

Our heartfelt thanks to you all.

Bristol Music Trust is a charity registered in England & Wales (no. 1140898)